APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR ENHANCING THE PERCEIVED SOUND IMAGE OF A SOUND SIGNAL BY SOURCE LOCALIZATION

This invention relates to an apparatus and to a method for enhancing the perceived sound image of a stereophonic, audio reproduction system whose inputs are a right and a left signal channel by decoding the right and left signal channels into a modified right, a modified left and a center signal channels. Signal information common to the original right and left signal channels is removed within a specified bandwith to produce the modified right and modified left signal channels. The original right and left signal channels are combined and frequencies below a predetermined cutoff frequency are attenuated to produce the center signal channel.